Tip #48 - The Right Club On The Tee

Except possibly the putter, no club is more important than the driver. And just as with the putter, you should feel absolutely comfortable and confident when you take the driver out of your bag. If you don't feel this way with the driver you now own, get another one.

Finding the right club will give you additional confidence to make a more aggressive swing.

And don't limit yourself to clubs with the number "1" on their sole plates. Frankly, I think most amateurs would hit the ball longer and straighter off the tee if they would drop the driver and go to a 2-wood. The 2-wood has more loft and gives you more elevation, less side spin and longer carry than does the driver. And with today's heavily irrigated courses, those are important factors.

The 2-wood is geared to hit the ball 240 yards on the fly and give you roll of about 10 yards, whereas the driver will hit it about 220 yards on the fly and-give you about 40 yards of roll. On slow fairways, however, you won't get anywhere near that 40 yards of roll.

On the surface, recommending a 2-wood may not seem like advice appropriate to aggressive golf, but it is. After all, if this club will give you additional confidence, you'll be able to make a more aggressive swing on the tee, and that's what counts.

I can recall at least one instance where my decision to tee off with a fairway wood was instrumental to victory. In the final round of the 1986 European Open in Sunningdale, England, I was in contention when I came to the third hole, a short par-4. From tee to green the hole isn't much more than 275 yards, and that green is an inviting target.

I knew I could get there with my driver -- my only question was whether I could hit it straight enough and soft enough to keep it from running through the green. Then I said to myself, "If you take the 3-wood and hit it as high and hard as you can, with just a bit of draw, you might get to the green."

Out came the 3-wood. Knowing I couldn't possibly hit it over the green, I made an aggressive swing, stayed behind the shot a bit to ensure plenty of height, and absolutely nailed it. Not only did the ball reach the green, it came down two feet from the hole and bit. In went the putt for an eagle two. That spurred me on to tie Ken Brown, whom I beat with a birdie on the first playoff hole.

Whether you settle on a 1-wood or 2-wood, give some thought to the length of your driving club. I became a straighter, more solid driver the day I shortened the shaft of my club by three-quarters of an inch. If your driver is longer than 43 inches and you're currently erratic with it, consider having your pro cut it down an inch. My bet is that you'll be pleasantly surprised at the improved compactness and timing of your swing, and at the better control your tee shots will have.

For the same reasons, I'm an advocate of getting the stiffest shaft of club you can handle. This is particularly true if you have a hooking problem. In fact, as fine a player as David Graham has always been, he eliminated his hook when he went to an extra-stiff driver. The stiffer shaft does not whip through and close the clubface as easily as a whippy shaft, so in effect you can swing more aggressively.

Of course, there's such a thing as too stiff a shaft. When you hit all your tee-shots dead to the right, it usually means the shaft is too stiff for you to square up the club. In such a case, you should back off from that one level of stiffness. If that shaft is an X (for extra stiff), go down to an S (stiff); if it's an S, go to an R (regular).

The only golfers who should not seek the stiffest shaft possible are players in desperate need of distance, including some women and senior players. If this is the case with you -- if you're not getting your longest tee shots much farther than 175 yards or so -- try a more flexible shaft in your driver. With an R or L (ladies) shaft you'll have an easier time "closing the door" of the clubface in the hitting area, and you'll likely develop a draw or hook which will give you a few extra yards of roll. Just be aware that these yards may come at the expense of accuracy.

You should also pay attention to what's called the face depth of the driver. The term should actually be "face height" because that's what it is, the distance from the bottom of the face of the driver to the top. In any case, the shallower the depth of the face, the lower the center of gravity of the club and the higher you'll hit the ball. The deeper (taller) the face, the higher the center of gravity and the lower you'll hit the ball.

Arnold Palmer, for instance, has a swing that produces low shots, so to counterbalance that tendency he uses a shallow-faced club. Bear in mind that all metal woods have very low centers of gravity, so for that reason they have little loft built into their faces. When someone tells you he has a 9-degree metal wood, you can assume it will hit the ball about the same height as a standard 12-degree wooden driver.

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